UAE National Day

Spirit Of The Union

National Day is something to behold. It takes place annually to commemorate the founding of the United Arab Emirates on 2 December 1971. And it’s a party…

In the days before, companies host parties for their employees and schools cater celebrations for the staff and pupils, with speeches, dancing, horses, camels or falcons (falconry is big in UAE culture), and food. December 1^st and 2^nd were national holidays this year.

It was a lovely winter’s day (28C) as we walked along the Corniche. In Abu Dhabi city the celebration centres on this 8 kilometers of sandy beach, sheltered by Lulu Island and the Heritage Village peninsula. The Corniche Road runs parallel to the beach and is flanked by parks, hotels and recreation areas. For National Day the whole area is jammed with cars decorated for the occasion, crammed with youngsters firing silly string, artificial snow or supercharged water pistols on each other and the crowds that line the way.

Buildings are festooned with flags, lights and bunting, but the effort people put into their cars is truly unique. Hand painted, silkscreened, or simply cloth covered, the graphics are stunning. Many send their cars to the shop to get them decorated in the couple of weeks prior. Often the graphics depict the UAE's leaders; as one friend said - it's a bit like pasting portraits of John A. McDonald, Pierre Trudeau and Stephen Harper on our vehicles for Canada Day. 

There was a souq selling local crafts and a stage was set up around the middle of the Corniche hosting entertainment including traditional Arabic dancing, where lines of men sang while dancing with thin, cane-like sticks.

Traditional Arabic Dancers

Carol gets Stringed

The sun goes down before 6pm these days and as darkness fell the activity became more frenetic. Police were distributed along the Corniche to control the flow of traffic and try to prevent youngsters from falling under moving cars; their actions seemed polite and sympathetic though. We walked along to the Emirates Palace Hotel, bathed in patriotic red and green light, lasers flying from its main dome. As we walked back to the main beach, young boys dodged through the crowd randomly spraying string and snow, most often in your face; Carol seemed to attract much activity dressed as she was in the colours of the UAE flag - many asked her if they could take her photo, but she also became a target!

The symbol of the UAE is everywhere – not just the flag but also the ‘Spirit Of The Union’ graphic showing the seven Sheikhs who formed the UAE alliance in 1971, all passed now. Sheikh Zayed, considered the father, is the one on the left.

The cars on the Corniche drove slower as kids hung out of the roofs and windows firing for all they were worth; string and gunk building up on the cars (and people); the road was littered with debris, cans, ribbon, paper and dead string…

Finally the sky lit up with fireworks; half a dozen identical displays fired off all along Lulu Island so that no matter where you stood you could see it all, full on. 

Then it was time to try and drive home!

Emirates Palace Hotel - 2 December 2013